Mudgee Vineyard

Mudgee, NSW

Our vineyards are all organic, having been converted in 2003. In the vineyard we use competitive biology, aiming to be completely chemical free in dry years and using half the organic standard of copper and sulphur in wet years. The goal is to lift vine health through soil health and complexity, and combat disease through an active and competitive leaf surface biology, crowding out disease causing organisms.

We have two Shiraz blocks in the vineyard. Both are organic, dry grown and untrellised and both show the distinctly different terrior in their wines, even though they are only 80 metres apart.

The current release Lowe Shiraz is made from Lowe’s ‘Block 8’ vineyard, hand picked and fermented in open wax lined concrete fermenters prior to 12 months maturation in 2250 litre American oak casks.

We are not looking for overt oak influence in the wine, but rather a softening of the strong natural tannins.

I’m very sensitive to sulphur and so only use minimal amounts in all my wines, and none in our Preservative Free and No Added Preservative wines. The dry grown grapes have the required colour and concentration of flavours to offset the use of sulphur.

It’s not quite that easy, but with very careful handling in the winery and a good technical approach the wine remains pure and, we believe, of the highest quality.